Adblocking is More Common than You Think

Adblocking has been in the news a lot recently as country-specific studies have generated a lot of coverage.

GlobalWebIndex’s trendable 33-market data shows just how widespread this behavior has become in all regions. Globally, it’s now 27% of online adults aged 16-64 who say they are regularly deploying adblockers on their main computer; Europe tops the table on 29% but it’s the relative consistency of the figures across all world regions that is arguably the most striking trend here.

Overall, in fact, it’s clear that digital consumers have become pretty privacy- and data-savvy. We’ve long heard that people are growing more concerned about their online footprints than ever before, but many aren’t just talking the talk here: extremely sizable minorities are now taking proactive steps such as using private browsing windows or deleting cookies. And a smaller but still significant 15% are using anti-tracking tools.

While none of these behaviors has yet become mainstream, it’s not hard to see the problems they bring for advertisers or traditional measurement techniques.